Replacing Towball

[Happy-Lappy]

I am about to change my towcar.

The car I am about to get has a standard ball fitted and I will need to replace this with an Al-Ko Extended Neck version.

Do I need to fit new coupling bolts (M16 x 50mm), Nuts and Lock Washers, or can I use the existing ones already with the towbar.

Best Regards, Martin

 

[Lutz]

No need to replace the nuts and bolts if they are still in a good condition, but you should replace the lock washers.

 

[Damian]

You can use the exisiting ones, but for the cost involved I would prefer to use new ones.

 

[Philspadders]

If the existing bolts have been over tightened then may have reached the UTS for the bolts.

Bolts are rated according to t5he yield strength of the material. Many for caravan are 8.8 which is 880 N/mm .

You would be better to replace with new bolts, nust and washers, also using an anti vibration washer such as a single coil split5 washer.

 

[ValA.]

A bit of extra advice to anyone, and that's to check the bolts which fix the Alko hitch to the A frame. We had a rather scary time when we'd just come back from a 2,100 mile round trip last year, and in the storage compound couldn't get our Alko hitch lock back on.

We discovered that one of the bolts holding the hitch to the A frame had completely sheared and the head end of the bolt was completely loose and had moved out of position. We removed the whole hitch and checked the other bolt and that was damaged too, and partly sheared, though still holding. We bought new bolts, and it's now part of our 'setting off' procedure to check they are absolutely tight.

Our caravan dealer said he had never seen anything like it - and had never found a problem, so whether our bolts were faulty will never be known - but worth anyone else checking just in case.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

A bit of extra advice to anyone, and that's to check the bolts which fix the Alko hitch to the A frame. We had a rather scary time when we'd just come back from a 2,100 mile round trip last year, and in the storage compound couldn't get our Alko hitch lock back on.

We discovered that one of the bolts holding the hitch to the A frame had completely sheared and the head end of the bolt was completely loose and had moved out of position. We removed the whole hitch and checked the other bolt and that was damaged too, and partly sheared, though still holding. We bought new bolts, and it's now part of our 'setting off' procedure to check they are absolutely tight.

Our caravan dealer said he had never seen anything like it - and had never found a problem, so whether our bolts were faulty will never be known - but worth anyone else checking just in case.

Thanks for the tip

 

[catherine2]

We have just changed our towball to an Al-ko extended neck one. If its an Al-ko make, you get all the bolts (a variety of lengths) and washers with it. The instructions tell you how much to tighten the bolts to - too much can be as bad as too little.

 

[Pat_374304630]

Definately change the bolts, washers etc..

 

[PaulShellHull]

Hi I would change the bolts

The reason why is because when the originals where put on they were torqued up which stretches them and if the bolts have been fitted for a long time then they will start to loose their strength ... hence i would really change them. Better to be safe then sorry you dont want to be looking at the caravan tumbling down the road behind you in the rear view mirror

 

[Lutz]

Not bad advise to change the bolts, too, but so long as they haven't been overtorqued with resultant plastic deformation, the stretch referred to in the above post will be within the elastic limit of the material. They will therefore return to their original length when relaxed and can be re-used, if necessary.